Maersk sets world record by stacking 17,603 containers on a ship

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Most of the gadgets we buy today will have a “Made in China” stamp printed somewhere on them. The fact is, most things are made in the East and shipped West. And that shipping happens on huge container ships carrying thousands of containers, called twenty-foot equivalent units or TEU.

The larger the vessel, the more TEU it can handle and therefore the more efficient it is. Maersk, the Danish transportation company, has just set a new world record for the most TEU loaded on to a single vessel. The record was achieved when the MV Mark Maersk Triple-E class ship left the port of Algeciras in Spain. On board were 17,603 TEU. You can watch it leaving the port in the video below.

In order for so many containers to be loaded on to the vessel Algeciras’ port needed an upgrade. In total, four new Triple-E cranes were installed and four existing cranes were upgraded. The Mary Maersk was built in 2013 and is absolutely massive at 50 meters wide and 396 meters long. Its gross tonnage is 194,849, and according to MarineTraffic it is currently in the China Sea South traveling at a speed of 17.8 knots.

It’s unlikely this is the last world record the Mary Maersk will set. The maximum capacity of the vessel is 18,270 TEU, but no port is capable of loading that many yet. When they do, the Mary Maersk will become that much more efficient and will hold another world record until the inevitable day an even bigger vessel is developed and the ports get upgraded once again to cope with it.